Creating a bigger, brighter, better whatcanbe future

Author: Patrice Tanaka

I am posting this final whatcanbe blog entry on the eve of CRT/tanaka’s annual whatcanbe Awards, which celebrates employees who have helped to create a bigger, brighter, better future for our agency, our clients and our community. The idea of whatcanbe has so taken root here at CRT/tanaka that it no longer requires a blog to explain and promote this concept within the agency. Our collective time in producing this blog is now better spent on envisioning whatcanbe and developing/implementing a plan to help the agency’s various stakeholders create the whatcanbe future of their dreams. The agency will continue its Buzz Bin blog, which provides an analysis of public relations, marketing and social media.

I am thankful to work at an agency whose cultural ethos and brand essence is captured in the life-affirming and aspirational concept of whatcanbe. The creation of CRT/tanaka, itself, was a whatcanbe idea of a bigger, brighter, better future. Mark Raper, Mike Mulvihill and Brian Ellis, the three co-founders of Richmond, Va.-based Carter Ryley Thomas (named after their three children), invited four PR agencies they admired to meet with them in Richmond in 2003 to discuss how we might all work together informally. PT&Co., an agency I had co-founded, was one of those invited to the meeting. Out of that meeting was born the Lumin Collaborative, the PR industry’s first intellectual think tank, whose member agencies are committed to focusing on “what’s next” in PR to better serve our clients.

And, out of the Lumin Collaborative was born our decision to sell PT&Co. to Carter Ryley Thomas and form CRT/tanaka in 2005 with the idea of creating a bigger, brighter, better future for both firms. Since that time, we have created a strong, national PR agency with five offices — Richmond, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and Norfolk — and enhanced our capabilities through subsequent acquisitions of an interactive firm (Oliver Creative), a food-focused PR boutique (Lewis & Neale) and a social media firm (Livingston Communications).

Our new agency has continued to win numerous awards for our work, including recognition for a domestic violence awareness and prevention campaign created for Liz Claiborne as one of the “5 Best PR Campaigns” of the past decade, and for our strong, unwavering commitment to workplace culture. Prior to forming CRT/tanaka, both Carter Ryley Thomas and PT&Co. had been recognized, individually, as the “#1 Best Workplace” among all PR agencies in America.

When creating CRT/tanaka in 2005, we sought to identify the spirit of our new enterprise and came up with the word — whatcanbe — that seemed to capture it perfectly. This concept, which is near and dear to our hearts, speaks to the joyful and imaginative spirit at work in the collective minds and souls at CRT/tanaka in seeking endless possibilities for ourselves, our colleagues, our clients and our community. It is about tapping the innate “goodness” and “genius” of our people to create “greatness” in all that we do at CRT/tanaka.

Every day, my colleagues and I at CRT/tanaka wake up, energized by the opportunity to create a bigger, brighter, better whatcanbe future. In work and in life, it just does not get any better than that.

Comments (0)

What. Can. Be.

Author: Marcy Walsh

Seven years ago this month I returned from maternity leave and  tearfully handed my baby over to a very capable babysitter. This started the journey that all parents know — juggling extremely important client meetings, company events and team needs with calls from the school to retrieve the child with a fever, pink eye, lice… some of my experiences were documented in Lisa Belkin’s work/life column in the New York Times.

And while this at times has required skillfully finding a covert location for meetings (in the pediatrician’s hallway, parked on the side of a road, in the school playyard), I have always known that I am among the lucky ones.  I work for a caring company.  I don’t imply that this is an oxymoron.  And it also isn’t the secret sauce to our company’s success. 

This fact was punctuated at an event this week at which I saw 15 years of faces that moved in and out of the doors of CRT/tanaka, either permanently or for lunch.  Many of these faces sat around the table when we decided to create a public relations firm with a culture that nurtured goodness, genius and greatness.  This at first meant broad employee ownership, no titles (we were all associates), entire agency meetings to make important decisions and leadership that at times found the CEO helping the interns stuff envelopes and allowing young associates the opportunities that catapulted their careers.

This evolved into a pride for our ‘experiment,’ growth, happy associates, great work and many awards.  In my 15 years with this company, we have had our growing pains.  But at the core of our company are leaders.  Seeing those faces made me so proud of the smart people who built this company — some of whom have gone on to spread the goodness, genius and greatness at other organizations.

Gary Hamel in his Wall Street Journal management blog today highlighted one of the Best Places to Work in America — W.L. Gore.  What makes Gore a great company, according to Hamel, are the very things that were woven into our fabric.  These particularly resonated with me:

• Leaders are the people that others want to follow. You can’t make people follow you.  However, there must be “rules of engagement” with a distributed leadership model so people understand how decisions were made, why they were made and what company values guided them.
• Ownership results in accountability and responsibility for business outcomes.  The challenge we have found here is educating a young staff on how this benefits them financially. 
• A foundation of trust is required among teams so that the best decisions are made in spite of a diversity of thought.  The way to get to trust is to come together.  Decisions don’t need to be made solely by the senior leaders if teams are working well together.
• People who like what they do will do it well.  Clients will be happy.  We have always found that the greatest benefits of our nurturing culture are great work for and commitment to our clients.

Hamel questions at the end of his blog if a distributed leadership model would work for your organization.  What do you think?

Comments (2)

15 Tips To Land That First Job in PR

Author: Jeff Wilson

Each semester, I have the privilege of talking with college students about what I do as a PR professional. I’ve always found it invigorating to hear from students about their hopes and aspirations, as they prepare to enter the world of public relations. It reminds me of what I enjoy so much about what I do for a living.

Around this time of year, the thoughts of most college students who are about to graduate turn to finding that first job. For many PR graduates, coming out of college in a tough economy, it’s about finding ANY job in public relations.

 A few years ago, I enlisted the help of some of my colleagues at CRT/tanaka to offer some advice – 15 tips, if you will – to college students hoping to land their first PR job. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and the things included on the list are not rocket science. Hopefully, they offer a little insight to PR students about how they can stand out in a crowded job market. Here goes:

1.    Get Internship Experience. Nothing is more impressive on a resume than experience. Get valuable internship experience while you are in college, and be willing to take an internship after graduation. It could lead to a full-time position.

2.    Volunteer.  Along with internships at corporations and PR agencies, consider interning or volunteering for non-profits. These organizations always need help, which offers interns great opportunities to get hands-on experience. While many non-profits may only offer unpaid internships, the experience you gain will pay dividends in your career.

3.    Write, Write and Write Some More. Most employers in PR place a premium on strong writing skills. Find every opportunity to add writing samples to your portfolio. Join the student newspaper. Create a newsletter for a student organization or non-profit. Practice writing e-mails flawlessly. And get to know the AP Stylebook like the back of your hand.

4.    Proof Your Material. Make sure that your resume, cover letter and supporting material are error free. If you aren’t the best proofer in the world, have someone review your material who is.

5.    Network. Attend local PRSA, AMA, IABC, Social Media Club and even Ad Club meetings. Join your college’s young alumni and/or alumni association, and utilize professional social networking sites such as LinkedIn. You never know when or where a job opportunity might present itself.

6.    Ask for Informational Interviews. Ask for informational interviews at companies where you think you’d like to work, or that you want to learn more about. The company might not be hiring now, but could be two weeks from now. If you’ve made a good impression, they’re likely to remember you for the job. Or, they can refer you to others who might have a position that is a good fit for you.

7.    Do Your Homework. Research the PR opportunities in the area where you want to work. Pay close attention to the work environments (agency, corporate, government, non-profit, etc.) and the type of work you will be asked to do as an entry-level employee to make sure your skills and interests match the job requirements. Understand the company’s products, services and breadth of work. Integrate this knowledge into your application letter and interview whenever possible.

8.    Customize Your Resume. Present your experience in a way that is tailored to each job opportunity. Demonstrate to prospective employers how you would be an asset to their company and their PR team.

9.    Show Your Passion. Make yourself stand out from the crowd by demonstrating the passion and personal dedication you have for the specific type of PR for which you are interested. Also articulate your desire to learn and grow. Sincere interest and passion for your work can help make up for a lack of experience.

10.  Ask Questions. You should never be afraid to ask questions while interviewing. It shows you are interested and want to learn as much as possible about the prospective company.

11.  Be Willing to Relocate. You might have to leave town to find that dream job – or any job – in this economy.

12.  Be Flexible. Your first PR job may not be your dream job, but look at it as an opportunity to gain valuable real-world experience.

13.  Create a Support System. To land internships and that first PR job, professors and guidance counselors can serve as great references and help guide you down the right career path. Also, rely on friends and classmates in your job search and share leads with one another. A classmate may already have a position in the company you want to work for, and may be able to provide valuable insight and a way to get in the door.

14.  Embrace Social Media. With PR 2.0 and the increasing importance of social media, it’s essential that you have a grasp on new technologies and trends in this space. Increasingly, companies expect you to have experience and an understanding of social media – in fact it’s almost a job requirement for entry-level positions these days. Your knowledge of tools such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, wikis, blogs, online communities, etc. will help demonstrate your worth to your prospective employer.

15.  Send “Thank You” Notes. Don’t forget the lost art of writing “thank you” notes. If a prospective employer has taken the time to interview you, take the time to send a “thank you” note or e-mail to express your genuine interest in working for that company.

While the job market is tough right now, it’s not impossible to land that first job in PR. It will require some perseverance and patience. Hopefully, these 15 tips will help with that job search.

Are there any other great tips to add to our list?

Comments (11)

Twinner, Twinner, Chicken Dinner

Author: Pia Mara Finkell

Earlier today, my colleague sent around a useful, but more importantly, really cool compilation of 35 Great Social Media Infographics from a social media marketing blog.

The one that got me thinking the most was this Social Media Statistics infographic demonstrating a study conducted by Pear Analytics, where 2,000 random tweets were analyzed for content. Long story short: the majority of tweets consist of completely pointless babble. Surprisingly, considering the number of companies getting on the Twitter train, only 10% are spam or self-promotional. Not surprisingly, under 10% were considered interesting with pass along value. It’s also interesting to note that conversational tweets were a close second in frequency. In other words, people like to chat on Twitter, putting the social in social media.

So, as a PR professional and active Twitter user concentrating in food and beverage business, what does this mean for me? It definitely means I’ll look to up the ante in my interesting and unique content to stand out in the crowd. For our clients, I’d say our best bet is to strike up some meaningful conversations with all the foodies out there in Twitterland. As a smart colleague once said, participate in the conversation.

Here are some thoughts on how to improve your or your clients’ Twitter communication:

• Be a resource: Tweet useful bits of information and links to educational or interesting blogs and Web sites, or drive people to useful parts of your website for educational purposes. This is an occasion where self-promotion has a purpose.
• Be funny! Encourage retweets and community interaction with a little bit of funny. Humor goes a long way in grabbing people’s attention. A good example: I posted a picture of an empty glass of Rioja and tweeted “Sad Times.” This was retweeted and followers of @RiojaWine went up significantly that day.
• Chat ‘em up: Following people within the foodie community, there are countless opportunities to strike up a conversation. This is grassroots PR at its best, and a great way to engage and create a loyal following. Is this time consuming? Yes sir! Is it absolutely necessary? You betchya.
• Jazz it up a little: Don’t just post words and random thoughts. Post pictures, a GPS location of whatever cool place you’re tweeting about or a link to an interesting article. If you’re sipping a nice glass of wine, take a picture of it, post a review or talk about what you’re pairing it with.
• Make it searchable with #hashtags: This is an oldie but a goodie. Journalists searching for trends and people searching for communities and Twitter friends will more easily find you in the sea of information out there.
• Make friends: This seems obvious, but invite 25-30 followers in your respective community per week. They will follow you back, especially if you follow some of the above rules to tweet by.

Comments (0)

Creating a Successful Web Site

Author: Jason Poulos

Basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques that will help create a successful web site.

1. Site Build

• The web site itself is developed in a manner that allows Google and other search engines to crawl and index the site properly.
• Wordpress has a handful of plug-ins that will help search engines through this process.
• Google Sitemap Plug-in “This plugin will generate a special XML sitemap which will help search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and Ask.com to better index your site. With such a sitemap, it’s much easier for the crawlers to see the complete structure of your site and retrieve it more efficiently. The plugin supports all kinds of WordPress generated pages as well as custom URLs. Additionally it notifies all major search engines every time you create a post about the new content.”
• All in 1 SEO Plug-in This will allow us to tweak title, keywords and descriptions for each page.

2. Content

• Unfortunately a site can’t just rely on how it’s built for SEO.
• The more content updates you have to your site the better. The more articles, additions and posts to the site the better.
• If search engine bots recognize that your site is full of new relative content, they come back more often. The idea behind these frequent bot visits are to raise page rankings thus getting more traffic to the site via search engines.

3. Networking

• Content needs to be networked and talked about outside of your site.
• Content needs to be pushed/pulled to/from other networks in an effort to generate traffic to your site.

Comments (3)